There are four methods to ensure that an applicable paper is submitted to PubMed Central (PMC) in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy. Authors may use whichever method is most appropriate for them and consistent with their publishing agreement.

Method A : Journal deposits final published articles in PubMed Central without author involvement.

Journals that automatically submit to PMC : These journals have a contract NIH to make the final published version of all NIH-funded articles available in PubMed Central (PMC) no later than 12 months after publication without author involvement. Example: BMJ, LWW journals

These are typically journals that offer an "open" option for authors, where the paying of an "author's fee" or "article processing charge" (APC) will make the article publically available at time of publication. Also known as hybrid journals. All of the major publishers have "open" options.

Self-submitting of final peer-reviewed manuscripts to NIHMIS involves three tasks:

Task 1: Deposit/upload manuscript files and link to NIH funding -- may be done by an author or delegate (librarian, administrative assistant). For a video of this process, see Submitting an Article to PubMed Central (WMV Video; 2:01)

Task 2: Authorize NIH to process the manuscript

Approval of the PDF Receipt requires author review and authorization

Task 3: Approve the PMC-formatted manuscript for public display.

Approval of the web version of the manuscript requires author review and authorization

Method D : Author completes submission of final peer-reviewed manuscript deposited by publisher in the NIHMS.

The Author must complete all remaining steps (see Method C Tasks 2 & 3) in the NIHMS in order for the submission to be accepted

Most of the major publishers fall into this category, such as Elsevier, Wiley, Springer, etc. Do make sure you check the author's publishing agreement though, as journals that are "hosted" by major publishers may have different policy practices.